WATCH IT: They’re here — in the paranormal docuseries The Enfield Poltergeist
If you build it, they will come. Ghosts, that is. The new four-part Apple TV+ docuseries builds a full-scale replica of the home in Enfield, England that became a playground for one very pesky poltergeist in the late ’70s. If this story sounds familiar, that’s because it was used as the inspiration for the second entry in James Wan’s blockbuster Conjuring franchise. But and Patrick Wilson are nowhere to be found in this version, which uses actual recordings of the supposed haunting recorded by paranormal detective Maurice Grosse while actors re-enact the haunting of the Hodgson family. Be afraid… be very afraid. — Ethan Alter
The Enfield Poltergeist premieres Friday, Oct. 27 on Apple TV+.
HEAR IT: parties like it’s 1989
Taylor Swift’s domination of 2023 continues with her re-recording of 1989. The fourth Swift album to get the “Taylor’s Version” treatment as the singer launches an unprecedented campaign to reclaim ownership of her Big Machine-era catalog. 1989 is considered my many critics to be Swift’s best and most important album, the one with which she definitively made the crossover from country to pop. All 16 of its tracks have been remade, along with five “From the Vault” songs: “Is It Over Now?,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Say Don’t Go,” “Suburban Legends” and “Slut!” 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be sold in various CD and vinyl editions with different artwork, including deluxe versions titled Crystal Skies Blue, Rose Garden Pink, Aquamarine Green and Sunrise Boulevard Yellow. The 1989 reissue caps off what’s been a very good year for the unstoppable pop queen. — Lyndsey Parker
1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift is available Friday, Oct. 27 to download/stream on Apple Music.
WATCH IT: and Alison Brie team up for the action-comedy Freelance
Does this mean John Cena will be in the Community movie? The WWE star-turned-movie star joins forces with Alison “Annie” Brie in Freelance, an action comedy that sends this odd couple on a south of the border adventure. Brie plays a U.S. journalist eager to get the scoop on a small-time dictator, and Cena is the former Special Forces operative that accepts a freelance gig as her bodyguard. But he really should have negotiated for extra benefits, as this freelance job comes with all sorts of hazards. Check out this exclusive clip, where Cena uses all his muscle to protect Brie… despite the fact that she’s more than proven her own wrestling skills. — E.A.
Freelance premieres Friay, Oct. 27 in theaters; visit Fandango for showtimes and ticket information.
STREAM IT: Take a deep dive into hip-hop history with Freestyle 101
Need an introductory course in hip-hop studies? Cue up Frank Meyer’s new documentary, Freestyle 101, which offers a guided tour of the art and science of rap with some of the best in the business — from Ice-T to the Wu Tang Clan. Go inside the recording studio and into the lives of a diverse slate of hip-hop legends, who will guide you to more advanced studies. This exclusive clip features Chuck D. discussing what it takes to get your brain on a hip-hop wavelength. — E.A.
Freestyle 101: Hip-Hop History premieres Tuesday, Oct. 24 on most digital platforms, including Amazon.
READ IT: All eyes are on Britney Spears’s book
Britney Spears’s stranger-than-fiction story has been told in multiple documentaries, TV specials and gossip blogs, but now the “Don’t Let Me Be the Last to Know” singer is finally having the last word in The Woman in Me, perhaps the most feverishly anticipated autobiography of the decade. Various excerpts published in the leadup to Spears’s memoirs have dropped one bombshell after another — regarding her nasty breakup with (and the abortion he pressured her to have), her dalliances with Colin Farrell and Wade Robson, her wild girls’ nights out with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, her annulled 56-hour Vegas marriage to Jason Alexander and that 2007 head-shaving incident. It seems no secret or ego will be spared, so get ready to learn all about K-Fed, Sam Asghari, her conservatorship, that 2001 VMAs yellow snake and probably a whole lot more Timberlake dirt in this page-turner. And for extra dramatic effect, get the audiobook, narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Williams. — L.P.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears is available Tuesday, Oct. 24 at most bookstores, including Amazon.
READ IT: Dolly Parton: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life celebrates some of the singer’s non-musical greatest hits
In a book that would make a cute gift or a delightful read for Dolly fans, author Tracey E. W. Laird looks back at some important moments in the life of the 77-year-old singer, actress, philanthropist and all-around good human being. She chronicles Parton writing her very first song — “Little Tiny Tasseltop,” about a corncob doll she received as a gift — and her dealing with a director who criticized her acting on the set of beloved 1989 movie Steel Magnolias, in which she played Truvy the hairdresser. There’s also a look back at the failure of her 1987 variety series on ABC, The Dolly Show, and much more. It’s all illustrated with a beautiful collection of vintage photos. — R.S.
Dolly Parton: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life is available Tuesday, Oct. 24 at most bookstores, including Amazon.
HEAR IT: Duran Duran celebrate Secret Oktober
Duran Duran first made a big splash on MTV riding a “Rio” yacht in pastel suits, but they’ve always had a dark side. In fact, a year before “Rio” (and a year before Michael Jackson’s zombie-filled “Thriller” video), the new wave stars were terrorized by a fleet of rotting zombies in their own freaky “Night Boat” mini-movie. Now, inspired by their Halloween 2022 Vegas concert at which they resurrected that creepy classic and also covered the Specials’s “Ghost Town,” Rick James’s “Super Freak,” the Rolling Stones’s “Paint It Black,” Cerrone’s “Supernature,” Talking Heads’s “Psycho Killer” and Siouxsie & the Banshees’s “Spellbound,” the recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees are tapping into that occult energy for their spooky-season soundtrack, Danse Macabre. And this record is cause for celebration even beyond Halloween, because it marks the band’s reunion with two former guitarists, Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo. Other all-stars joining what Duran Duran describe as their “ultimate Halloween party” include Måneskin bassist Victoria De Angelis longtime Duran producers Nile Rodgers and Mr. Hudson. This record is full of tricks and treats for dark-hearted Duranies. —L.P.
Danse Macabre by Duran Duran is available Friday, Oct. 27 to download/stream on Apple Music.
WATCH IT: See what it takes to escape North Korea in harrowing new documentary
The winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Beyond Utopia provides a rare glimpse of life inside the “hermit kingdom” of North Korea — the world’s most reclusive nation. Faced with economic stagnation, limited resources and persecution, many defectors try to flee to South Korea along a circuitous and dangerous route. Enter South Korean pastor Seungeun Kim, who tries to orchestrate these escapes, while evading capture himself. Director Madeleine Gavin uses hidden camera footage that brings an even greater sense of urgency to their flight. — E.A.
Beyond Utopia premieres Friday, Oct. 27 in theaters; visit Fandango for showtimes and ticket information.
STREAM IT: The Gilded Age is still shiny in Season 2
Get ready for more high society hijinks as HBO’s 19th century period drama returns for a second season of backbiting and shade-throwing. Still overseen by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, this fresh batch of eight episodes will once again find Carrie Coon’s New Money clan pitted against Christine Baranski’s Old Money old-school family. If you ask us, that pairing is so money. — E.A.
The Gilded Age Season 2 premieres Sunday, Oct. 29 at 9 p.m. on HBO and Max.
HEAR IT: Without imagines a world where libraries, touch and even death isn’t a given
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Omar El Akkad, journalist and author of the critically-acclaimed novel What Strange Paradise, has officially brought his podcast back for a second season. And it continues to ask the interesting question of what would the world be like if something that’s part of our lives now, whether we take it for granted or don’t notice it all, were to cease existing. This week’s episode tells the story of how some of the wealthiest people in the world are using their money to fund research into how to make death a thing of the past. Other new installments examine subjects such as how the wave of book bans is affecting libraries; the importance of touch, which is happening less and less in our increasingly digitized world; what the end of glaciers would mean for the planet — and for us; and the best way to make drug laws a thing of the past. — R.S.
New episodes of Without are available every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.
READ IT: Calvin and Hobbes creator unveils his first major work in decades
It’s been nearly three decades since we said goodbye to imaginative mischief-maker Calvin and his tiger sidekick Hobbes. And Calvin and Hobbes creator, Bill Watterson, has largely retired from storytelling… until now. The Mysteries is the reclusive artist’s most substantial creative work since his still-beloved comic strip ended it run. Produced in collaboration with artist John Kascht, this slender illustrated parable is filled with rich black-and-white imagery and an evocative story that depicts how the mysteries of the past echo down the generations into the present. The Mysteries more than earns a place alongside your Calvin and Hobbes collections. — E.A.
The Mysteries is currently available at most bookstores, including Amazon.
HEAR IT: is winning at life
American Idolf ans fan remember Caleb Lee Hutchinson as the runner-up from Season 16 — and how, on the night that he famously placed second to secret girlfriend Maddie Poppe, he declared his love for her on the live finale. But those Idol viewers haven’t seen or heard Hutchinson like this. The country singer’s eclectic, psychedelic and confessional new album, Southern Galactic, draws equally from Waylon Jennings and Tame Impala, and it also draws from the pain he experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and the dissolution of his four-year relationship with Poppe. “It has been many years of immeasurable highs and crippling lows. It wasn’t all that long ago I was really considering giving up. Lots of prayers prayed and tears shed,” Hutchinson, now age 24, revealed in a recent vulnerable Instagram post. “Through the love of God, my family, my friends and all of you, I am feeling better than ever as both a man and an artist. This record encapsulates this period of my life and making it was the most rewarding and gratifying things I have ever done.” — L.P.
Southern Galactic by Caleb Lee Hutchinson is available Friday, Oct. 27 to download/stream on Apple Music.
HEAR IT: The Kills come back stronger
Critically acclaimed Anglo-American duo the Kills, aka Florida-born punk Alison Mosshart and London art-rocker Jamie Hince, have endured many struggles and several hiatuses since forming an unlikely but unbreakable bond in 2001. But 20 years after releasing their raw, lo-fi debut, Keep on Your Mean Side, and seven years after their most recent record, Ash & Ice, they’re finally back with their sixth LP, God Games. “We keep feeling creatively inspired,” Mosshart told Yahoo Entertainment. “It’s all about that — the reason we’re still doing it is because it still feels so great to do, and it’s still so inspiring, and we still have so much more that we feel like we have to do. So, we’ll carry on until something changes.” — L.P.
God Games by the Kills is available Friday, Oct. 27 to download/stream on Apple Music.
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